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CHRISTMAS IN MY HEART

Christmas for me is a time for celebrating. It is the time of year when we gather together and rejoice the birth of Our Lord. It is also the time for St. Nick, Santa Clause, Father Christmas and the many other cultural names he is adorned with.

It is a time I reflect back on years gone by. My parents sitting on the couch watching all six of us excitingly opening our presents. It is the glow of the lights on the Christmas tree and watching the snow fall from my bedroom window.

It is going to Midnight Mass and singing with the congregation sharing the love and joy of the season.

It is following traditions that my parents instilled in us for many years. Sharing our home and food with family, friends and the less fortunate. It is giving of one’s self to others.

I have many Christmas’s behind me. My children, nieces and nephews and extended family are all grown up with families of their own now. They have added some of their own traditions, but the basics are still there. The faces may have changed, but the love of yesteryear remains strong.

My memory is long and my heart is filled with joy. I still look forward with excitement to the coming of Christmas day. I will have the privilege of watching my granddaughters open their gifts that will be waiting for them underneath the beautiful tree with the lights glowing. My grandsons will call, my sister and her family will call and we will all wish each other a Merry Christmas, even though the miles separate us.

My parents, Aunts, and Uncles are all gone now, but my cousins and friends will send cards and good wishes to us. We all remember how it started for us. We all will remember our parents and those that are not with us anymore. They all played an important part in our lives. The gift of love and joy is never forgotten and always forwarded to the next generation. It humbles me to know that I am part of these traditions, and have contributed my little part to keep them going.

It is not the gifts to me anymore, but that same love and joy that will linger forever.

I wish all of my followers, readers, friends that I have made here, and our loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy, Happy New Year.

25 thoughts on “CHRISTMAS IN MY HEART”

Dear Patricia, with this truly heartwarming post you have sent my mind spinning back through time to those jolly Christmases of my Lancashire childhood during the 1950s. It was a bleak post-war world with bombsites from the Blitz disfiguring townscapes though often snow-covered in winter with just a few weeds showing through. My wonderful late-parents were young back then, young and happy, and those long-ago Christmases glow in memory – the tree with fairy-lanterns lit, lying in bed for Santa (Dad) though never quite managing to glimpse him, reaching out in the dark at five in the morning to feel the lumpen shapes of our present-stuffed pillowcases and fruit-stuffed stockings, then snapping the light on to rip off the thin crackly wrapping paper with a tang of orange in the air…

Thank you Paul. Our memory’s and traditions show us the way to the future. Tradition to me is a soul food that nourishes our love, hope and compassion. I am grateful that you have taken the time to stop by and know that this Holiday Season will be filled with happiness and love for you and Maureen. Cheers and a very Healthy, Happy New Year. xo

This made my eyes well up with tears as I remembered the Christmases of my growing up. Those days are gone forever and I miss them.
Great post and photos, Patricia. Thanks for sharing this with us. Merry Christmas to you and yours! Love and hugs, Natalie 🙂 ❤

They are not gone Natalie. Just tucked away in a safe place in your heart. You can call them to mind whenever you like and savor in their sweetness of your life. Write them down and pass them on. Think of how you would feel if you found a journal written by your mother or grandmother. Thank you for visiting have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year,. Hugs to you too :o)

My Dear Patricia,
I too wish you a beautiful Christmas with all your family and friends. I too, like you, have wonderful memories of Christmas with my family and extended family when I was living in the United States. It’s amazing, but my mother always had more than enough food. No one was turned away. No one went home without taking food home with them. And around two p.m. in the afternoon, we were all hauled in the car and went visiting. I believe we visited every old person that was alone. Mama and Daddy were sticklers on that. So we spent a quarter of an hour or more at each house. By the time we got back home, it was time to sit down and eat and talk and of course sing. We sang together as a family. We were five kids and my parents, but we sang from the heart and you would have thought we were a choir of twenty people. All those things have helped me become what I am today and I am so grateful.
Shalom,
Patti

I am a certified Christmas Elf (certifiable, some might say) — so I loved seeing you had a whole category for Christmas posts available from your menubar. Mine are listed on one of my LinkLists.

I enjoyed reading this article and all of the comments so very much – despite the fact that I am reading next to a window air conditioner that is barely beating back summer heat. 🙂 And you are right on when you say that, except for those very early childhood years, the very best part is the memories, the traditions, the love & community – not the presents!
xx,
mgh
(Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMORE dot com)
ADD/EFD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
“It takes a village to transform a world!”

Thank you, Madelyn. All elves are welcome to my Christmas page any day of the year. I would love to see you here again this coming Christmas so we can share the joy and love of the holiday. I grew up in New York but retired here in Florida, and, fortunately, one of my children live just ten minutes away (my daughter and her family) so I still get to celebrate my favorite holiday with family and friends. Hope to see you here again. Christmas Hugs, even though it’s July. ☺☺☺

I lived in Manhattan for almost 20 years and saw quite a bit of the surrounds while I was there. I love NY! (NYC is the perfect place to live during the holidays. It seems that the entire City goes elfish!)

I lived in Florida as a kid (near the Cape, where my Dad was stationed) but the heat doesn’t suit and I relish 4 distinct seasons so it would probably not be my choice if I ever decide to retire — but how wonderful for you that you are so near your daughter and can have a close day-to-day relationship with your granddaughters.

I will definitely put you on my list of Christmas things to do as the holidays approach. Merry Christmas in July!
xx,
mgh

Last time, commenting, I spoke of my wonderful late parents and the happy family Christmases of my Lancashire boyhood in the 1950s.

This time I’d just like to mention someone else. His name was Herbert and he was the middle-aged master electrician I began my working life with, aged 15, back in ’62. We had jobs to do at Chester Cathedral and before entering, that first time, he told me, very sternly, that “Only our best work will do in the Lord’s House.”

Sadly, Herbert died just a few years later.

Recently I wrote a poem (a haibun) inspired by the ARK Exhibition of modern sculpture at Chester Cathedral and it was displayed, along with other selected poems, including a little gem from Maureen, in the South Transept during the last fortnight of the exhibition.

I only hope Herbert would have approved.

Maureen joins me in wishing you and yours a very happy Christmas and New Year.

Thank you, Paul and Maureen, for your wonderful Christmas greetings. It warms my heart that I am still reading and sharing heartwarming memories with so many people around the globe. It’s such a wonderful feeling. I can hear the jingle bells from across the pond. Thank you, both for being a part of my memories. xoxo

Thank you, Jennie. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours. Still getting antibiotics directly through a pick like daily, but I am home and feeling better. Between the knee and the blood clots, it’s been a rough road. Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes sent my way I think I have finally turned the corner. The road is still long but I feel I now have the strength to keep on moving in the right direction. xo